Security Service chief responds to accusations of running "secret prisons" in Ukraine

Human rights group slam Ukrainian law enforcement and security agencies for arbitrary detentions and ill-treatment of the detainees

Chairman of Ukraine's SBU Security Service Vasyl Hrytsak has said that the SBU has no secret detention centers, according to UNIAN news agency.

"We have no secret SBU prisons. I declare this with full responsibility. We have a department for pre-trial investigations, which is located in the city of Kyiv and works for the Central Office. We have sectors to facilitate pre-trial investigation in several regions of Ukraine, in the regional centers, including in the city of Kharkiv,"Hrytsak said at a briefing in Kharkiv.

He stressed that no one is held at these locations. According to Hrytsak, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Valeria Lutkovska has visited these sites.